Woman takes a dip in Echo Park Lake and won’t come out [updated]

Police officer stand by as a woman (far right) remained in the center of the lake | Luke Hetherman

ECHO PARK — Police and firefighters are trying to coax a woman out of Echo Park Lake after she went swimming late this afternoon, with officials saying they feared she might drown in the deepest portion of the lake.

“Our concern is not really her swimming in the lake, but her psychological state and fear of her drowning,” said Lt. Wes Buhrmester with the LAPD Rampart Division. ” We also have to be cautious so that rescuers don’t aggravate the situation, and we end up becoming part of the problem.”

The woman, who was first spotted swimming in the lake shortly after 5 p.m., remained floating in the water about three hours later. “She’s still in the water, so we’re waiting for her to exit,” Buhrmester said.

Echo Park Lake, which is filled primarily with water from storm drain runoff, is off limits to swimmers.

UPDATE: The 27-year-old woman from Orange County left the lake at about 11 pm with the assistance LAPD’s Underwater Dive Unit. She was transported to a hospital for physical and psychiatric treatment. Buhrmester provided more details:

At 10:55 pm, a boat from our Underwater Dive Unit went out to her. She was tired from the time spent in the water, so officers took hold of her arms and she was floated to the boathouse. She was examined by LAFD paramedics, then transported to a hospital for physical and psychiatric treatment. She is a 27-year-old female from Orange County. The scene is now clear.

Early on, a sergeant established something of a rapport with her, and threw her a life vest, which she put on. This gave her enough buoyancy that the danger of her drowning was minimized. At that point, it became a matter of waiting until our boat arrived. Per paramedics who were standing by at scene, the water was not so cold as to put her at risk of dangerous hypothermia. It was also not feasible to put anyone, officer or citizen, in the water because it’s up to 10 feet deep, per park personnel. If she panicked, she could endanger her rescuer. The decision to wait was mine, as I had control of the incident. Once a plan was devised and the boat was launched, the situation was swiftly resolved.

I could see this being considered an excess expenditure of time and resources. Time was on our side, and we utilized it. But I’d much rather be criticized for resource management, than for making a decision to leave and let her settle her issues for herself, to find out later she drowned. Hopefully she will receive the help she needs.

Photo by Luke Hetherman

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28 comments

A homeless person taking an extended bath is bad why???
She probably would of been gone a lot sooner had there been no police presence
As long as she’s not exposing herself to everyone, let her enjoy herself, she’ll move on

Hmm. Also, I understand they have to be cautions. Still, I don’t see any information in this story that would make me suspect she needs psychiatric help. It would be nice to add that if something did go on to suggest that. I don’t think jumping in a lake on a hot summer weekend night is a psychiatric problem. Heck, I say, You Go Girl!

Just commenting, as I understand they have to be cautious, and police should do as they did, leave medical decision to the experts – at least if there is something to suggest such as issue, information not in this story.

It’s almost 10pm and she is still swimming. The police are spending a small fortune in city dollars,
including a semi-truck w/the scuba team that just arrived. I spoke to an officer who confirmed my suspicion, homeless (i.e.: mentally ill) woman – who just wont’ come out of the lake. Sure she’s terrified and just wants
everyone to go home, so she can get out! Oh well, the officers seem to have been doing a caring job w/the
womans safety being the only concern. (which won’t stop them from cuffing her and taking her to county jail -who’s track record caring for the mentally ill is infamous).

They got her out just before 11pm and took her away via ambulance. She looked relatively OK from what little I could see. I’m glad she didn’t drown or otherwise get hurt – thanks for your patience, LAPD & LAFD.

At 10:55 pm, a boat from our Underwater Dive Unit went out to her. She was tired from the time spent in the water, so officers took hold of her arms and she was floated to the boathouse. She was examined by LAFD paramedics, then transported to a hospital for physical and pyschiatric treatment. She is a 27-year-old female from Orange County. The scene is now clear.

Early on, a sergeant established something of a rapport with her, and threw her a life vest, which she put on. This gave her enough buoyancy that the danger of her drowning was minimized. At that point, it became a matter of waiting until our boat arrived. Per paramedics who were standing by at scene, the water was not so cold as to put her at risk of dangerous hypothermia. It was also not feasible to put anyone, officer or citizen, in the water because it’s up to 10 feet deep, per park personnel. If she panicked, she could endanger her rescuer. The decision to wait was mine, as I had control of the incident. Once a plan was devised and the boat was launched, the situation was swiftly resolved.

I could see this being considered an excess expenditure of time and resources. Time was on our side, and we utilized it. But I’d much rather be criticized for resource management, than for making a decision to leave and let her settle her issues for herself, to find out later she drowned. Hopefully she will receive the help she needs.

I appreciate that you always take the time to communicate to us, the people of echo park
(I’d swear you were an english major)
Thank you lieutenant for being kind to the woman who took a dive.
You are a class act.

I’m a taxpayer living in Los Angeles, and I consider the way this was handled an excellent expenditure of time and resources. Thank you for a humane and measured approach. Your good efforts and communication are much appreciated.

Wonder if they would have treated the situation the same if the swimmer was Black or Brown. For a 27 year old White woman from Orange County, they waited for 6 hours to play it as save as possible. Minorities don’t get that level of concern.

Same thing with a non white freeway sign dangler who shut down the 101 south during rush hour a couple weeks ago.

I’m torn because it does seem like a ton of resources get spent on babysitting one crazy person. Was there any reason to believe she couldn’t swim out? On the other hand, a lengthy police intervention is probably less bad than hundreds of people seeing someone get splattered on the freeway or fished out of the lake.

Until there’s some political willpower to actually provide resources for the care of mentally ill people at the city and state level, it will continue to fall on the cops and paramedics to play case worker to them. That’s not a good solution for anyone.

It is painful to admit, but what David says certainly has the ring of truth to it. The LAPD shot Walter DeLeon in the head for no apparent reason while he was walking down Los Feliz Blvd. for pete’s sake!

In this case it sounds like the police were kind and patient but if the woman feared that her life was put in danger by the presence of the police I can certainly find that to be an understandable response, especially if she is someone who doesn’t have her full mental faculties..

I’m a peace loving law abiding professional and I can say in all honesty that I have never been treated with as much rudeness and aggression as I have in a couple of interactions with police officers.

Of course there are some great officers, most probably are and of course Lt. Buhrmester is one of the good ones, but some officers are real assholes to the point of being killers.

Mr.Wes seriously? Why not us the pepper spray? I have called LAPD report drinking & drunk persons acting foolish at the park , All I get we will be there in couple of minutes , that was two weeks ago still waiting

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